SA Cape Floral Region Stamp Issue

These beauties will be snapped up for both animal and flower theme collectors.

Stamps within a sheet are highly prized.

International philatelists will be going after these sheets.

The South African Post Office is releasing ten stamps, in one sheet, on the 23rd September 2011. The ten stamps have been designed by artist Tobie Beele, in these beautiful stamps he has captured the variety and beauty of the Cape Floral Region The stamps portray the eight protected areas, with the the images depicting the following fauna and flora: the Cape ghost frog (Heleophryne purcelli), Cape clawless otter (Aonyx capensis), Strelitzia (Strelitzia reginae), Erica (Erica patersonii), Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer), Cape Aloe (Aloe ferox), King protea (Protea cynaroides), Caracal (Caracal caracal), Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) and the Fish eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer).

South Africa boasts eight heritage sites of which the Cape Floral Region was the sixth South African site to be inscribed on Unesco’s list of World Heritage Sites. The World Heritage Committee declared the 553 000-hectare Cape Floral Region to be of “outstanding universal significance to humanity”. The Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden on the slopes of Table Mountain, which fall within the site, is the first botanical garden to be included in one of Unesco’s world heritage sites.

The fynbos vegetation, which is unique to the Cape Floral Region, with it’s unique plant reproductive strategies, adaptive to fire, patterns of seed dispersal by insects, as well as patterns of endemism and adaptive radiation found in the flora, makes it of outstanding value to science.

The eight protected areas, which form part of the heritage site, are Table Mountain; De Hoop Nature Reserve; the Boland mountain complex; the Groot Winterhoek wilderness area; the Swartberg mountains; the Boosmansbos wilderness area; the Cederberg wilderness area; and Baviaanskloof, which stretches across the boundary between the Western and Eastern Cape.

The Cape floral kingdom, stretches over 90 000 square kilometres, depicting just 0.5% of the earth’s land area but it contains roughly 3% of the world’s plant species. These are among some of the most beautiful and unusual plants and flowers with some of these species occurring nowhere else on earth.

The kingdom also boasts 11 000 marine animal species and 560 vertebrate species. All of this among a diverse and stunningly beautiful sea and land area, from the coastlines of two oceans, on the east and west coast, to the mountains to semi desert, a visit to these areas can be accomplished within a couple of hours drive.

Patunia is a pat-of-all trades. She can cook like nobody's business one minute and spend the rest of the afternoon in the garden pruning roses or talking to birds the next. She loves living in Cape Town with her family, four dogs and two cats. And some goldfish. And those birds we mentioned earlier. She's not afraid of getting her hands dirty in potting soil or with new technology, and this blog is where she spills the beans on her adventures and experiences along the way.

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